Lost some local channels

Here's a play by play with DTV CS right now at 1104C SAT, 21 of April 2012.

We currently do not see local Chicago channels 2, 5, & 7.

Initially CS asked if I updated the software using call back. I said yes. It didn't work for me so I used slicer.

I told her I've already read posts from numerous DTV users in the Chicago region having the same issue.

She is checking.....

She came back and said that if after 24 hours (its been that for me) you don't see a picture on 2,5, & 7; do the update again. (comment here: a stall).

BUT she said that the DTV engineers are aware of the problem and working on it.

So basically she is acknowledging the issue but "stalling" a bit by telling me to do the update again.

A contradiction.

She did say that there is a NOTE to NOT escalate the issue as its being worked on.

I old told her I wanted a gimme from DTV and leave my service ticket open. Let's play a bit with mean time to resolution. So far the MTR is getting higher; the stall was just to reset the clock on the MTR; what a joke.

She credited me 3 months of local channels at $5.00 per month; IE: $15.

I would recommend all those in the Chicago region using the DTIVO series 2 boxes call DTV and complain and get your "gimme's".

BTW my wife in the suffering from withdrawal phase of missing her local channels.

I am trying to circumvent a major issue her by keeping her occupied with stuff other than TV; it is kind of working.

BTW just wrote to the Chicago Tribune relating to the Direct Tivo issue in the Chicagoland region.

Pete, I also called and tried to get a "gimme" and got the $5 off for 3 mos also. Though that does me no good if I can't use the local channels I want. I also wrote the Chicago Tribune and am writing CBS 2 local news Pam Zekmen. We'll see.

Just lost my locals on Thursday - I'm in the Detroit area. Wife called DTV yesterday (I wasn't around) and they tried some stuff but couldn't help (I guess they offered her a free HD receiver but only with a 2 year contract?!).

I'll read back in the thread and see about upgrading - I haven't hooked up to a phone line in years.

This is so annoying. My tivo's have been functioning fine for years, and not interested in upgrading (will screw up my multiplexer setup).

Going on two days after the 6.4a upgrade on one machine and still no 2, 5, 7 here. I also completed another manual 6.4a upgrade on my second machine last night and the channels aren't coming in this morning (still under 24 hours).

I wonder if DirecTV has somehow misconfigured their DSV streams for 2, 5 and 7 in the Chicago market so that they aren't compatible even after a 6.4a upgrade. It wouldn't the first time they've had a glitch like this on their end.

Does anyone have a contact at DirecTV that they could ask to look into this issue of a possible misconfiguration with 2, 5, 7 in Chicago? I'm doubtful that calling customer service would send the message up the chain to the right technically-minded person of authority.

Are there any telnet commands we can run to narrow down the problem here? For those in other regions that have all their locals back with 6.4a, what values are you seeing now on fixed channels in the TivoWeb User Interface, Channel Guide, Callsign details under Spi= 127 (StreamLanguageDescriptorList) and StreamType= 2 3 3 (unknown)? (As wishbone4401 described here).

Without slicer a manual upgrade can get tricky, but you can start reading here:

I've updated a couple machines starting with those slices. As stevel, mentioned, I also followed the thread at another site: deal database dot com, search for "6.3a upgrade via bash". Some of my old notes from an earlier 6.3 manual upgrade based on that guide are here:

Make sure to edit your installSw.itcl so it does NOT contain any "reboot" commands (change to "exit 0") or else you will lose telnet and have to pull the drive and hook it up to a PC with a Live CD to re-hack everything from scratch. If all those threads are confusing, it's probably best not to attempt it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the help Markis. I have the slices downloaded to my Tivo, but I'm going to wait to see what happens with other people in the Chicago area that have upgraded before I go much further. I'm a Windows guy and haven't messed with Linux in a long time.

If the upgrades work for others, I may just buy the slicer and upgrade via that route.

Chicago problem here too. Called DTV getting the stall answer. I don't want to update 6.4a but I miss the local news. I am thinking about ordering the 390-399 channels at lest until DTV fixes this mess. But I want to know if these too are affected by this problem. Can someone tell me please if these channels are coming in on their system with 6.2a or 6.4a(Chicago only)?

Chicago problem here too. Called DTV getting the stall answer. I don't want to update 6.4a but I miss the local news. I am thinking about ordering the 390-399 channels at lest until DTV fixes this mess. But I want to know if these too are affected by this problem. Can someone tell me please if these channels are coming in on their system with 6.2a or 6.4a(Chicago only)?

Click to expand...

You won't be able to get the Distant Network Service (DNS) network channels without waivers from your local stations. Not gonna happen.

if you can get local channels that are broadcast over the air (OTA), this might work for you in Chicago like it worked for me in Colorado. I have OTA antenna for local channels but had no need to hook it up to my DVR until now and when I did I was able to select and record all my local channels. You cant get the ones that are in the guide that display a blank screen because the DVR thinks the satellite signal is good and chooses to select that satellite signal over the OTA signal. However the OTA HD versions of those channels also show up in the guide, have the same content as the SD signal and the DVR will allow you to select, display and record them in SD.

What receiver are you using because doing some testing with rabbit ears no HD channels and no 11(PBS) or 32(FOX) shows up in the guide? This might be getting off topic, but do I need to purchase a HD antenna for your solution to work. But this problem could be just bad signal because the only signal that comes through OTA is 32-1(FOX) when plugged into the digital converter that I never used before.

What receiver are you using because doing some testing with rabbit ears no HD channels and no 11(PBS) or 32(FOX) shows up in the guide? This might be getting off topic, but do I need to purchase a HD antenna for your solution to work. But this problem could be just bad signal because the only signal that comes through OTA is 32-1(FOX) when plugged into the digital converter that I never used before

Click to expand...

I have a couple of HR10-250s (one on 6.4a and the other on 6.3e) and a DSR7000 (6.2) hooked to an old VHF TV antenna in the attic. Since our local channel transmitters are located on a mountain top, we get pretty good signals in the Denver area.

All my DVRs have a coax connector for an external antenna next to the connectors for the two satellite tuners. To configure it for OTA signals, you have to go through the guided setup and sometime during that process, youll get to a screen that says something like do you have 1 tuner, 2 tuners or tuners and an antenna. Select the latter option. In my case, all the channels that the antenna could receive showed up in the guide along with the information about whats on.

Something is up with those Chicago stations. texasbrit has asked our DirecTV contacts for an update on why v6.4a hasn't restored those stations.

Click to expand...

Thanks for getting the word out. It sounds like DirecTV is getting the message that there are real problems here. Hopefully, they can come up with a fix soon. It must be misconfigured DSV streams or bad guide data. I would think they would compare their seemingly successful changes in other regions to the broken setup in Chicago to track down the issue.

I do have non-satellite OTA stations working on my HR10 with a standard antenna connection, but I also have an SD-DVR80 with local channel Season Passes that are recording nothing everyday.

On a positive note, after a few days of use both 6.4a updated machines are otherwise running smoothly and functioning as well as before. I always worry that new problems might come up after an update, but I haven't noticed any issues yet.